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F2 tornado in Ashley County, Arkansas

Tornado December 5, 1953 · Ashley County, Arkansas

Rating

58.3 mi

Whole path

880 yd

Path width

Injuries

$300K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Union Parish, Louisiana → Morehouse Parish, Louisiana → Ashley County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 880 yards (0.50 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

NOAA’s online database has no written narrative for tornadoes before 1996 — just the numbers above, transcribed from the original storm logs. (NOAA’s monthly Storm Data publications, which carry written accounts, begin in 1959.)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 9983048. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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